GORDON KEENE VELLA. - On Point News
GORDON KEENE VELLA. - On Point News
GORDON KEENE VELLA. - On Point News
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new trial under Rule 60(b)(3) upon evidence that expert witness had misstated his credentials so<br />
as to include a license that he did not, in fact, hold at the time of trial).<br />
The recent decision in In re Vioxx is particularly instructive here because it also involved<br />
misrepresentations relating to factors touching upon the admissibility of an expert witness. Id.<br />
More to the point, the misrepresentations in that case were made by the expert himself. Also<br />
similar to the instant case, the expert in Vioxx offered testimony on the issue of liability. In fact,<br />
the only real difference between the cases is that the expert here was proffered by the Plaintiff,<br />
while the expert in Vioxx was proffered by the defendant.<br />
The specific misrepresentation in Vioxx occurred during direct examination about the<br />
expert’s qualifications and consisted of the following question and answer:<br />
Q. Are you board-certified, sir?<br />
A. Yes. I passed boards in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.<br />
Id. at 592. The witness went on to testify that, in his expert opinion, Vioxx was not a substantial<br />
contributing cause of the decedent’s fatal heart attack. The jury subsequently returned a defense<br />
verdict. Id.<br />
In testimony before a different court several months later, the expert testified that his<br />
board certification had lapsed, both in cardiology and internal medicine, and that he was in the<br />
process of renewing those certifications. Id. at 593. Moreover, he admitted that the certification<br />
had lapsed prior to his earlier testimony. In fact, the witness sought to justify his misstatement<br />
by rewriting the punctuation in the response and maintained that his prior testimony was accurate<br />
because it focused upon having “passed” his boards, rather than on whether he was or was not<br />
currently board certified:<br />
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